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Manufacturing

Korea completes a third vacuum vessel sector

24 Jan 2022
A third 40-degree sector of the ITER vacuum vessel has exited the Hyundai Heavy Industries production line in Ulsan, Korea.
2022-0114_S8 Landing on TFA 2.jpg
The 440-tonne sector sits on its transport platform in the dedicated vacuum vessel workshop at Hyundai Heavy Industries. Once inserted into protective housing it will be ready to ship.
Sectors representing one-third of the complex, double-walled chamber that will house the 150-million-degree ITER plasma have been produced in Korea and a fourth sector is in the final stages of manufacturing (> 90 percent complete).

Sector #8, which will ship from Korea this week, will follow the path marked out by Korean sectors #6 and #1(7)—first travelling to ITER by boat, barge and road ... then passing site acceptance testing ... and finally undergoing a series of pre-assembly activities in the Assembly Hall (first in its horizontal shipping position, then once vertical). The final destination for each sector is the ITER Tokamak pit, where the sectors will be supported by in-pit tooling until they are joined by welding.  

At Hyundai Heavy Industries, vacuum vessel series production activities have been underway since the first cutting operation took place on sector #6 in 2012. (Sector #6 was delivered to the ITER Organization in 2020.) With such long manufacturing lead-time, the teams did not waited for one sector to be completed in order to begin on another; instead, the sectors were brought along side by side in tight sequence.

Along the way, the Korean Domestic Agency has worked closely within the Vacuum Vessel Project Team with the other Domestic Agencies involved in the procurement of the vacuum vessel (Europe: five sectors; India: in-wall shielding; Russia: all upper ports).

In the gallery below, see vacuum vessel sector #8 during final D-shape assembly, inspection and packing. In next week's ITER Newsline, we'll include a picture of the 440-sector loaded on the boat that will deliver it to Fos-sur-Mer, France.  

This specially designed housing is already a well-known sight at ITER. Sector #8 will follow the path marked out by Korean sectors #6 and #1(7)—travelling by boat, barge and road to reach ITER, where it will be "unveiled" in the clean environment of the ITER Assembly Hall.
On the inner face of the D-shaped sector are many flexible cartridges (yellow) that will be used to attach the modules of the ITER blanket. Other permanents attachments seen here, placed with extreme precision, will be used for instrumentation and diagnostics.
Sector #8 has completed all final inspection tests and is ready for shipment to France.
A vacuum vessel sector is a heavily welded structure, with steel plate thicknesses of up to 60 mm and many areas with difficult access. The total length of full penetration welds is nearly 1,000 metres, and each metre is inspected and verified. The final helium leak test (photo) is the way to ensure that no leaks have been overlooked or allowed to pass.
During final D-shape assembly, four segments are brought together, precisely aligned, and welded. One of the challenges is predicting and controlling welding stress and distortion so that the stringent tolerance requirements for final geometry can be achieved.
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